İletişim kuram ve araştırma dergisi Sayı 24 Kış-Bahar 2007, s.215-228 Forum The structure and function of communication in society Harold D. Lasswell 1 Türkiye’deki gibi hem siyasal bilgiler fakültesinde dikiş tutturamayıp iletişim fakültelerine gelen, hem iletişimi hor gören hem de iletişimin olma koşulu olarak “en az iki kişinin gerektiğini” (gönderici ve alıcı olmasını) öne sürecek kadar bilgisiz olanları yetiştirenlerin aksine, ABD’de iletişim alanını kuran ve geliştirenlerin önde gelenleri sosyal bilimciler, özellikle sosyologlar ve siyaset bilimcileri, olmuştur. Nermin Abadan-Unat ve Ünsal Oskay gibi bazı istisnalar dışında, hem politika ve iletişim arasında doğru ve anlamlı bağ kuramayacak kadar “yetersizlerin” hem de bu yetersizliklerini İngilizceyi iyice öğrenerek ve tembelliklerini yenerek giderme yerine okul odalarında çaylı-kahveli dedikoduyu seçenlerin ve iletişim alanına, hiç bir olumlu katkıda bulunmadıkları gibi, zarar verenlerin aksine, ABD’deki siyaset bilimciler iletişimin gelişmesine büyük katkıda bulunmuşlardır. Bunların başında gelenlerden biri de H. Lasswell’dir. Harold Lasswell iletişimde sadece bir formül öne sürmemiş, iletişimin yapısı ve toplumdaki işlevleri hakkında bir kuram geliştirmiştir. Lasswell’in klasik kuramının birkaç kelimelik formül ötesinde bilinmesi ve bu görüşün irdelenmesi gerekir. Lasswell’in “Structure and function of communication in society” makalesinden parçalar sunulmasındaki amaç, iletişimin göndericiMesaj-Alıcı-Geribesleme çerçevesi içinde ele alan basitlikten ve Defleur gibi bilim adamlarının ultra-tutucu bağnazlıklarının ötesinde anlaşılmasıdır. Bu sunum iletişimin mesaj gönderme-alma mekanik süreç algısının tersine toplumda sürekliliği sağlamayla ilişkisini ortaya koymaktadır. 1 Original kaynak: Lyman Bryson (1948) (ed.) The Communication of Ideas. New york: The Institute for Religious and Social Studies. Kaynak: Schramm, W. ve Roberts, D. F. (1971) The Process and Effects of Mass Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, s. 84-99. look into the factors that initiate and guide the act of communication. We are less interested in dividing up the act of communication than in viewing the act as a whole in relation to the entire social process. Often it is simpler to combine audience and effect analysis. and other channels of communication are doing media analysis (p. than to keep them apart. Those who look primarily at the radio. 84). We call this subdivision of the field of research control analysis.216 H. for instance. When the principal concern is with the persons reached by the media. and the second to the arrangement of the elements of which the message is composed. of which the following . namely. D. On the other hand. structure and function. and for this purpose subdivide the field into the study of purport and style. the first referring to the message. the present discussion has a different scope. film. we may want to concentrate on the analysis of content. Lasswell The act of communication Convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions: Who Says What In Which Channel To Whom With What Effect? The scientific study of the process of communication tends to concentrate upon one or another of these questions. Any process can be examined in two frames of reference. Scholars who study the "who. we speak of audience analysis. If the question is the impact upon audiences." the communicator. press. and our analysis of communication will deal with the specializations that carry on certain functions. the problem is effect analysis. Whether such distinctions are useful depends entirely upon the degree of refinement which is regarded as appropriate to a given scientific and managerial objective. Specialists who focus upon the "says what" engage in content analysis. Structure and function Enticing as it is to work out these categories in more detail. The trumpeting. The single-celled organism or the many-membered group tends to maintain an internal equilibrium and to respond to changes in the environment in a way that maintains this equilibrium. (3) the transmission of the social heritage from one generation to the next. or intermediate conductance." "fleeing. Multicelled animals specialize cells to the function of external contact and internal correlation. the several parts of the animal act in concert in reference to the environment ("feeding. and survey the environment. The responding process calls for specialized ways of bringing the parts of the whole into harmonious action (p. The sly fox may approach the barnyard in a way that . 85).Communication in society 217 may be clearly distinguished: (i) the surveillance of the environment. The same categories apply to what goes on among members of an animal society. or shrilling of the sentinel is enough to set the herd in motion. producing results that differ in many ways from the outcome when each is allowed to continue a separate path. In some animal societies certain members perform specialized roles. When the stimuli receiving and disseminating patterns operate smoothly. and the nervous system itself. (2) the correlation of the parts of society in responding to the environment. incoming nervous impulses and outgoing impulses are transmitted along fibers that make synaptic junction with other fibers. whether relatively isolated or in association. Biological equivalences At the risk of calling up false analogies. among the primates. Individuals act as "sentinels. A vital entity. Thus. At any relay station there is no conductance. At the higher centers. we can gain perspective on human societies when we note the degree to which communication is a feature of life at every level." "attacking"). Among the activities engaged in by specialized "leaders" is the internal stimulation of "followers" to adapt in an orderly manner to the circumstances heralded by the sentinels. separate currents modify one another. total conductance." standing apart from the herd or flock and creating a disturbance whenever an alarming change occurs in the surroundings. specialization is exemplified by organs such as the ear and eye. Within a single. has specialized ways of receiving stimuli from the environment. where the arriving impulse may be too weak to reach the threshold which stirs the next link into action. cackling. The critical points in the process occur at the relay stations. highly differentiated organism. and interactive of all frames in the world community. it is possible to describe the rate at which comparable content is brought to the notice of individuals and groups. One group surveys the political environment of the state as a whole. journalists. we note three categories of specialists. 86). Subject to modification at each relay point in the chain.218 H. We can inquire into the point at which "conductance" no longer occurs. another correlates the response of the whole state to the environment. and we can look into the range between "total conductance" and "minimum conductance. messages originating with a diplomat or foreign correspondent may pass through editorial desks and eventually reach large audiences. and activity of the cortical or subcortical centers of an individual organism. and speakers are correlators of the internal response. of missionary zeal. 87). Whether we parachute into the interior of New Guinea. Lasswell supplies too meager stimuli for the sentinel to sound the alarm. or land on the slopes of the Himalayas. Obviously there is every gradation possible between total conductance and no conductance (p. D." The metropolitan and political centers of the world have much in common with the interdependence. and the third transmits certain patterns of response from the old to the young. we find no tribe wholly out of contact with the world. If we think of the world attention process as a series of attention frames. Or the attacking animal may eliminate the sentinel before he makes more than a feeble outcry. of adventurous exploration and scientific field study. Not that folk cultures are wholly untouched by industrial civilization. The long threads of trade. Diplomats. Communications which originate abroad pass through sequences in which various senders and receivers are linked with one another. Editors. . Hence the attention frames found in these spots are the most variable. attaches. No one is entirely out of this world (p. Attention in World Society When we examine the process of communication of any state in the world community. and foreign correspondents are representative of those who specialize on the environment. Educators in family and school transmit the social inheritance. refined. and of global war reach far distant places. differentiation. At the other extreme are the attention frames of primitive inhabitants of isolated areas. Later on. tax collector. of a single state are stationed all over the world and send messages to a few focal points. reveal many equivalences to the specializations found in the physical organism and in the lower animal societies. for instance.Communication in society 219 Among primitives the final shape taken by communication is the ballad or tale. where they interact upon one another. Remote happenings in the great world of affairs. field gangs. There are automatic systems that can act on one another without involving the "higher" centers at all (p. judge. an article is put out in the press. . policeman. missionary. as when a foreign secretary gives a speech in public. More detailed equivalences The communication processes of human society. the sequence spreads fanwise according to a few-to-many pattern. in any case he is an assembly point of news and comment. doctor. or efferent. The central nervous system of the body is only partly involved in the entire flow of afferent-efferent impulses. neighborhoods. The lines leading from the outer environment of the state are functionally equivalent to the afferent channels that convey incoming nervous impulses to the central nervous system of a single animal. When we push upstream of the flow of communication. shops. Most of the educational process is carried on the same way. are reflected. and other local contexts. soldier. Outgoing. we note that the immediate relay function for nomadic and remote tribesmen is sometimes performed by the inhabitants of settled villages with whom they come in occasional contact. most of the messages within any state do not involve the central channels of communication. Similarly. peddler. student. or a news film is distributed to the theaters. The re-layer can be the school teacher. however dimly. in the thematic material of ballad singers and reciters. The stability of the internal environment is maintained principally through the mediation of the vegetive or autonomic specializations of the nervous system. salesman. when examined in detail. They take place within families. Obviously. In these creations faraway political leaders may be shown supplying land to the peasants or restoring an abundance of game to the hills. 88). happenings that come to the notice of metropolitan audiences. impulses display corresponding parallels. and to the means by which alarm is spread among a flock. The diplomats. these incoming reports move from the many to the few. political. depending upon the degree of reciprocity between communicators and audience. we separate them into the manipulators (controllers) and the handlers. But it should be noted that audiences do "talk back. This is the role of the printers and distributors of books. New York. while the second does not. Turkey. D.). Moscow. A cultural center like Vatican City is in intense two-way relationship with the dominant centers throughout the world. A further distinction can be made between message controlling and message handling centers and social formations. even when the flow is severely curtailed in volume (as between Moscow and New York). Australia. for example. broadcasting equipment. are in intense two-way contact. Lasswell A further set of significant equivalences is related to the circuits of communication. despite their preponderance of outgoing material. Or. which is the function of editors. Ankara. and Paris. Even specialized production centers like Hollywood. U.220 H. and many controllers of mass media use scientific methods of sampling in order to expedite this closing of the circuit. the District of Columbia. and messengers connected with telegraphic communication. censors. which are predominantly one-way or two-way. and other forms of fixed and specialized capital.A. A conversation is usually assumed to be a pattern of two-way communication (although monologues are hardly unknown).S. Circuits of two-way contact are particularly in evidence among the great metropolitan. and cultural centers of the world. The (p. and propagandists. receive an enormous volume of messages. the first group typically modifies content. linemen. Speaking of the symbol specialists as a whole." after some delay. of radio engineers and other technicians associated with broadcasting. London. two-way communication occurs when the sending and receiving functions are performed with equal frequency by two or more persons. to express it differently. . Even insignificant sites become world centers when they are transformed into capital cities (Canberra. 89) message center in the vast Pentagon Building of the War Department in Washington transmits with no more than accidental change incoming messages to addressees. therefore. of dispatchers. Such message handlers may be contrasted with those who affect the content of what is said. The modern instruments of mass communication give an enormous advantage to the controllers of printing plants. Since human beings exhibit speech reactions. which is not exhaustive. In comparative psychology when we describe some part of the surroundings of a rat. Since values are not equally distributed. It is possible to establish a list of values current in any group chosen for investigation. we can interview the great "talking animal. and enlightenment are among the values. 90). In America. we can discover the rank order in which these values are sought. it is not implied that we can most fruitfully investigate the process of communication in America or the world by the methods most appropriate to research on the lower animals or on single physical organisms.) In the study of living forms.Communication in society 221 Needs and values Though we have noted a number of functional and structural equivalences between communication in human societies and other living entities. the social structure reveals more or less concentration of relatively abundant shares of power. it is rewarding. and by watching what is done when opportunity is afforded. as we have said. and other activities which involve the environment can be examined on a comparative basis. in reference to categories of relationships that are recognized objects of gratification. both verbal and nonverbal. Food. we have no hesitation in saying that power. Allowing for the data furnished by speech (and other communicative acts). So far as industrial civilization is concerned. We can rank the members of the group according to their positions in relation to the values. and hence of maintaining a steady state of internal equilibrium." (This is not that we take everything at face value. If we stop with this list. wealth. Further than this. In this case. we cannot ask the rat. we use other means of inferring perception. or monkey as a stimulus (that is. sex. we can describe on the basis of available knowledge (fragmentary though it may often be) the social structure of most of the world. and other . it requires no elaborate technique of study to discern that power and respect are values. When human beings are our objects of investigation. Sometimes we forecast the opposite of what the person says he intends to do. to look at them as modifiers of the environment in the process of gratifying needs. we can investigate many more relationships than in the nonhuman species (p. that is. wellbeing. We can demonstrate this by listening to testimony. we can investigate human society in terms of values. cat. for example. wealth. respect. we depend on other indications. as part of the environment reaching the attention of the animal). In every society the values are shaped and distributed according to more or less distinctive patterns (institutions). in broadcasting and other informational activities across frontiers. therefore. 91). the paragraphs of the Constitution. Moreover. in censorship and travel restriction. efforts are made to "black out" the self in order to counteract the scrutiny of the potential enemy. forming castes rather than a mobile society. Fearful that intelligence channels will be controlled by the other. and miranda. the political formula. in counterintelligence work. There may be counterideologies directed against the dominant doctrine. D. which are the for mula. In some places this concentration is passed on from generation to generation. one ruling element is especially alert to the other. One function of communication. not only in the sense that interstate differences may be settled by war. and relies upon communication as a means of preserving power. and in relation to power we can differentiate the political doctrine. and by the role of two giant powers. Such communications are the ideology. which comprise the Miranda (p. is to provide intelligence about what the other elite is doing. and the ceremonies and legends of public life. Ideology is only part of the myths of any given society. The ruling elites view one another as potential enemies. The ideology is communicated to the rising generation through such specialized agencies as the home and school. and about its strength.222 H. The institutions include communications which are invoked in support of the network as a whole. but in the more urgent sense that the ideology of the other may appeal to disaffected elements at home and weaken the internal power position of each ruling class. Social conflict and communication Under the circumstances. Lasswell values in a few hands.3 These are illustrated in the United States by the doctrine of individualism. the United States and Russia. Today the power structure of world politics is deeply affected by ideological conflict. In addition. and the miranda. These varied activities are manifested in the use of open and secret agents to scrutinize the other. in order to withhold and distort. there is a tendency to resort to secret surveillance. Hence international espionage is intensified above its usual level in peacetime. communication is employed affirmatively for the purpose of establishing contact with audiences within the frontiers of the other power. . formula. they keep an uneasy eye on both environments. Besides using open sources of information.Communication in society 223 Ruling elites are also sensitized to potential threats in the internal environment. wellknown devices are at the disposal of certain species. The parallels include the surveillance exercised over the internal environment. and counter-ideologies are suppressed (p. One task of a rationally organized society is to discover and control any factors that interfere with efficient communication. secret measures are also adopted. the protective coloration of the chameleon. e. and can take the place of. In animal societies communication is efficient when it aids survival. In human societies the process is efficient to the degree that rational judgments are facilitated. Destructive radiation. or some other specified need of the aggregate. if we take a destructive. internal and external. the existing structures of central integration. yet remain undetected owing to the limited range of the unaided organism (p. can we properly say that internal surveillance occurs in regard to cancer.g. The processes here sketched run parallel to phenomena to be observed throughout the animal kingdom. Some limiting factors are psychotechnical. the squid's use of a liquid fog screen. Inside a physical organism the closest parallel to social revolution would be the growth of new nervous connections with parts of the body that rival.. However. process. 93). as distinct from a reconstructive. A rational judgment implements value goals. Specialized agencies are used to keep aware of threats and opportunities in the external environment. Precautions are taken to impose "security" upon as many policy matters as possible. Can this be said to occur as the embryo develops in the mother's body? Or. 92). the ideology of the elite is reaffirmed. for instance. At the same time. . As a means of preventing surveillance by an enemy. since among the lower animals some herd leaders sometimes give evidence of fearing attack on two fronts. may be present in the environment. since cancers compete for the food supplies of the body? Efficient communication The analysis up to the present implies certain criteria of efficiency or inefficiency in communication. there appears to be no correlate of the distinction between the "secret" and "open" channels of human society. The same criteria can be applied to the single organism. In recent years shortwave broadcasting has been interfered with by disturbances which will either be surmounted. On the contrary. note the reluctance with which many visual devices have been adopted. brooding personalities mix. if we define the facts as what the objective. intense conflict." "center. the personnel engaged in gathering and disseminating intelligence is continually misconstruing or overlooking the facts. but in the long run it will doubtless be more efficient to get rid of them by consent or coercion. Lacking proper training. and contributes to the popular image of international politics as chronic. There are also important differences among people which spring from contrasts in intelligence and energy. of course. or will eventually lead to the abandonment of this mode of broadcasting. when a foreign correspondent allows himself to become absorbed in the foreign scene and forgets that his home audience has no direct equivalents in experience for "left. when pessimistic. In the interest of a "scoop. trained observer could find. Lasswell But even technical insufficiencies can be overcome by knowledge. In accounting for inefficiency we must not overlook the low evaluations put upon skill in relevant communication. Ignorance here means the absence. To some extent obstacles can be surmounted by skillful evasion. During the past few years advances have been made toward providing satisfactory substitutes for defective hearing and seeing. though no less important. 94). deliberate obstacles put in the way of communication. at a given point in the process of communication. performances command prestige. they choose quite different birds. and little else. Specialists in communication often fail to keep up with the expansion of knowledge about the process." the reporter gives a sensational twist to a mild international conference. This happens. Sheer ignorance is a pervasive factor whose consequences have never been adequately assessed. . who confirm their gloom. many mass communicators select words that fail. or positively distorting. the level of efficiency is sometimes adversely influenced by personality structure. D. of knowledge which is available elsewhere in society. An optimistic. A less dramatic. development has been the discovery of how inadequate reading habits can be corrected. And despite research on vocabulary. Besides skill factors. outgoing person may hunt "birds of a feather" and gain an un-corrected and hence exaggeratedly optimistic view of events." and other factional terms (p. for instance. Too often irrelevant. There are.224 H. like censorship and drastic curtailment of travel. Perhaps the most striking examples of power distortion occur when the content of communication is deliberately adjusted to fit an ideology or counterideology. while it is certain to be significant in accounting for the primary observer. Distortions related to wealth not only arise from attempts to influence the market. also. In studying the focus of attention of the primary observer. Actually it is useful to consider the attention frame of the relay as well as the primary link in terms of media and nonmedia exposures. we emphasize two sets of influences: statements to which he is exposed. note hours of work in a factory. he can count soldiers.Communication in society 225 Some of the most serious threats to efficient communication for the community as a whole relate to the values of power. Each agent is a vortex of interacting environmental and predispositional factors. 95). no conductance. see butter and fat on the table. What statements are brought to the attention of the relay link? What does he pass on verbatim? What does he drop out? What does he rework? What does he add? How do differences in input and output correlate with culture and personality? By answering such questions it is possible to weigh the various factors in conductance. and respect. and modified conductance (p. Research in Communication The foregoing reminders of some factors that interfere with efficient communication point to the kinds of research. but from rigid conceptions of economic interest. . An attache or foreign correspondent exposes himself to mass media and private talk. we must consider the primary link in a communication sequence. measure gun emplacements. for instance. The role of nonmedia factors is very slight in the case of many relay operators. Besides the relay link. Whoever performs a relay function can be examined in relation to input and output. wealth. which can usefully be conducted on representative links in the chain of communication. other features of his environment. A typical instance of inefficiencies connected with respect (social class) occurs when an upper-class person mixes only with persons of his own stratum and forgets to correct his perspective by being exposed to members of other classes. is not confined to residents or citizens. for instance. the western hemisphere. since noncitizens who live beyond the frontier may try to influence American politics. It is evident. Conversely. The world public is relatively weak and undeveloped. To be a member of the New York public. 96). since their ruling elites focus on one another as the source of great potential threat. To belong to an attention aggregate it is only necessary to have common symbols of reference. public. North America. There is a network of sentiment groups that act as crowds. the inhabitants of a region are overwhelmingly committed to impose certain policies on others. since something more than passive attention is necessary.226 H. or expressly affecting New York. that the strongest powers tend to be included in the same attention area. it is essential to make demands for public action in New York. hence tolerate no dissent. The public of the United States. An individual passes from an attention aggregate to the public when he begins to expect that what he wants can affect public policy. Since the outcome of the conflict depends on violence. These areas are interrelated with the structural and functional features of world society. North America. D. even though he belongs to some extent to the world attention aggregate. for instance. Sentiment Groups and Publics A further limitation must be taken into account before we can correctly classify a specific person or group as part of a public (p. During a war or war crisis. the globe. and sentiment areas of many degrees of inclusive-ness in world politics. Lasswell Attention Aggregates and Publics It should be pointed out that everyone is not a member of the world public. there is no public under such conditions. for instance. the western hemisphere. partly because it is typically kept subordinate to sentiment areas in which no debate is permitted on policy matters. The . and not debate. or the globe is a member respectively of the attention aggregate of New York. however. Everyone who has a symbol of reference for New York. everyone who lives in the United States is not a member of the American public. From the foregoing analysis it is clear that there are attention. The demands made regarding public policy must be debatable. and especially of world power. When the reality picture of kings. the rulers do not share their picture of reality with the rank and file. The attention structure of the full-time specialist on a given policy will be more elaborate and refined than that of the layman. presidents. The attention structure within a state is a valuable index of the degree of state integration. The Principle of Equivalent Enlightenment It is often said in democratic theory that rational public opinion depends upon enlightenment. if the "truth" is not shared. it is quite possible for the specialist and the layman to agree on the broad outlines of reality. or of protection. It is by no means fantastic to imagine that the controllers of mass media of communication will take the lead in bringing about a high degree of equivalence throughout society between the layman's picture of significant relationships. Nevertheless. to express the matter another way. and layman. the ruling elements expect internal conflict. . 98). Expert. A workable goal of democratic society is equivalent enlightenment as between expert. and the term is often made equivalent to perfect knowledge. When the ruling classes fear the masses. They can share the same general view of the likelihood of war. much ambiguity about the nature of enlightenment. since stronger powers are typically more important sources of threat. Hence the channels of communication are controlled in the hope of organizing the attention of the community at large in such a way that only responses will be forthcoming which are deemed favorable to the power position of the ruling classes. 97). and layman can have the same gross estimate of major population trends of the world. A more modest and immediate conception is not perfect but equivalent enlightenment. and cabinets is not permitted to circulate through the state as a whole. the degree of discrepancy shows the extent to which the ruling groups assume that their power depends on distortion. leader. There is. leader. That this difference will always exist.Communication in society 227 strongest powers usually pay proportionately less attention to the weaker powers than the weaker powers pay to them. and the picture of the expert and the leader (p. rather than harmonious adjustment to the external environment of the state (p. we must take for granted. Or. however. for weaker powers than the weaker powers are for the stronger. In democratic societies. In gauging the efficiency of communication in any given context. which in turn depends upon communication. experts. and rank and file. . and within the economy of a single organism. Lasswell eğlenceyi eklememesinin nedeni. D.1 In society. Lasswell Summary The communication process in society performs three functions: (a) surveillance of the environment.228 H. (c) transmission of the social inheritance. toplumsal seviyede almasındandır. and the identity of the group whose position is being examined. In general. it is necessary to take into account the values at stake. (b) correlation of the components of society in making a response to the environment. and especially upon the equivalence of attention among leaders. disclosing threats and opportunities affecting the value position of the community and of the component parts within it. rational choices depend on enlightenment. iletişimi “alıcının gereksinimleri” çerçevesinde değil. biological equivalents can be found in human and animal associations. 1 Ana akım görüşler bu üç işleve bir dördüncüyü eklerler: Eğlence. the communication process reveals special characteristics when the ruling element is afraid of the internal as well as the external environment.
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